Lora Cecere

At the Gartner Supply Chain Planning Summit in Denver, Scott Luton sat down with Caglar Ozdag, a supply chain leader at ZS. Known for its deep analytics and technology expertise across industries such as life sciences, airlines, consumer goods, and agriculture, ZS has become a trusted partner for organizations looking to elevate their planning and manufacturing performance. Ozdag leads the firm’s supply chain practice with a focus on planning from detailed forecasting through detailed scheduling. As a former practitioner himself—having led planning operations at large global enterprises—he brings a grounded, real-world perspective to the challenges facing today’s supply chain leaders.   Old Problems Persist—and New Ones Are Emerging When asked about classic and emerging challenges in planning, Ozdag didn’t hesitate: firefighting isn’t going away. From supply planning disruptions to last-minute schedule changes, firefighting remains a daily reality. “Life happens,” Ozdag noted. Plans rarely match reality, and organizations must constantly adjust. But today, a new layer has been added: AI uncertainty. Everywhere he goes, leaders are asking the same questions: “Is AI the right investment?” “Will the ROI materialize?” “Are we adopting the right tools, or just chasing hype?” This blend of enduring complexity and emerging skepticism has become a defining…

Stay up to date on all the latest conversations, interviews, and episodes we released this week here at Supply Chain Now. On Monday, we released 2 new episodes! On this episode of Digital Transformers, Kevin L. Jackson discusses how Enterprise Information Management Transforms with Mark Judson. On This Week in Business History, Scott Luton shares about 10 Cities with Business Ties You Didn’t Know! On Tuesday, we released an episode of TEKTOK with host, Karin Bursa. She was accompanied by Scott Luton and supply chain pioneer, Art Mesher. On Tuesday we also released an episode of TECHquila Sunrise with host Greg White and special guest Shannon Vaillancourt, CEO of Ratelinx. On Wednesday we released Supply Chain Today and Tomorrow hosted by Scott Luton and Greg White with special guest Mike Griswold from Gartner. On Thursday, we released a replay of the Supply Chain Buzz. In this episode, hosts Greg White and Scott Luton welcomed Jordon White from Crisp and Jerry Stephens from Outlier to discuss the current state of the food and retail supply chain. We ended the week on Friday with 2 episodes! We released another Dial P for Procurement episode! Hosts Kelly Barner and Scott Luton welcomed special…